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Nets-Lakers Preview

Nov 29, 2009 - 7:56 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

New Jersey (0-16) at Los Angeles (12-3), 9:30 p.m. EDT

Lawrence Frank had been the longest-tenured coach in the Eastern Conference, but he won't be around when the New Jersey Nets eventually get their first win of the season.

After firing their coach, the Nets try to avoid matching the worst start in NBA history Sunday night when they play the reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

With the losses mounting, the Nets (0-16) finally fired Frank before the finale of their four-game road trip. Only the 1988-89 Miami Heat and 1999 Los Angeles Clippers started seasons 0-17, and as assistant Tom Barisse takes over the team for this game, the Nets appear hard-pressed to avoid joining those two teams to share this dubious mark.

New Jersey's empty road trip continued Friday night with a 109-96 defeat to Sacramento that matched the franchise's overall longest losing streak. The Nets fell behind by as many as 22 points late in the second quarter and rallied to as close as six points in the second half before allowing the Kings to pull away.

"We have to come out with the same type of intensity we had in the second half no matter if it's the Lakers or the Knicks," guard Devin Harris said. "Yeah, they're the defending champions, but they can be beat. If we give the effort we need to, we'll keep ourselves in the game."

The Nets haven't kept themselves in too many games while averaging an NBA-low 85.6 points and shooting a league-worst 40.3 percent from the field. Ten of their losses have come by double digits, including each game during this trip.

A sore right groin has limited Harris, the team's leading scorer last season, to six games and three starts. In his return to the starting lineup Friday, he scored a season-high 25 points despite shooting 6 for 22.

Harris shot 31.0 percent in New Jersey's two losses to Los Angeles last season, including a 5-for-16 performance in a 120-93 road defeat on Nov. 25, 2008. The point guard, however, topped 20 points against the Lakers for the first time in his career with a team-high 21 in that game.

Kobe Bryant has also struggled with his shooting against the Nets as his 39.3 percent in 19 meetings is his worst against any opponent. He's been held to 10.7 points and 26.5 percent shooting over the last three matchups, but the Lakers have won them all, thanks to Pau Gasol.

Gasol has averaged 28.7 points on 71.7 percent shooting against the Nets since joining Los Angeles in the middle of the 2007-08 season.

The Lakers (12-3) enter Sunday's matchup having scored 100 points in five straight wins. They delivered their highest point total of the season in Saturday night's 130-97 victory at Golden State. In his fourth game back from a strained right hamstring, Gasol had 22 points to lead seven players in double figures.

"Pau's just being Pau," said Bryant, who scored 20 for the fifth straight game. "He's one of the best in the game. We missed that."

Los Angeles is 1-1 in the second of back-to-back games this season, winning in overtime at Houston on Nov. 4 and losing at Denver on Nov. 13. The Lakers, however, haven't dropped consecutive finales of back-to-back scenarios since November 2007.

The Nets, meanwhile, have dropped 16 straight road games dating to a 115-89 win over New York on March 18.

New Jersey has also lost 27 of 35 all-time road games against Los Angeles. Its loss at the Staples Center last season followed a 102-100 win there on Nov. 25, 2007.